ripe - What does it mean?

Adjective

(er)

Ready for reaping or gathering; having attained perfection; mature; -- said of fruits, seeds, etc.; as, ripe grain.

* Milton

So mayst thou live, till, like ripe fruit, thou drop / Into thy mother's lap.

* {{quote-magazine|year=2013|month=May-June|author= David Van Tassel], [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/lee-dehaan Lee DeHaan

|title= Wild Plants to the Rescue |volume=101|issue=3|magazine=(American Scientist) |passage=Plant breeding is always a numbers game.

Advanced to the state of fitness for use; mellow; as, ripe cheese; ripe wine.

(figuratively) Having attained its full development; mature; perfected; consummate.

* Shakespeare

He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one.

(archaic) Maturated or suppurated; ready to discharge; -- said of sores, tumors, etc.

Ready for action or effect; prepared.

* Addison

while things were just ripe for a war

* Burke

I am not ripe to pass sentence on the gravest public bodies.

*

Like ripened fruit in ruddiness and plumpness.

* Shakespeare

Those happy smilets, / That played on her ripe lip.

* {{quote-book|year=1981|author=Daniel Curzon|title=Human Warmth & Other Stories|isbn=0912516542 citation

passage=He looked back once at the waving hands, the mother's glowing, ripe cheeks.}}

(obsolete) Intoxicated.

* 1611, (William Shakespeare), , Act V, Scene 1,

Alonso: And Trinculo is reeling-ripe : where should they / Find this grand liquor that hath gilded them? / How cam'st thou in this pickle?

(legal) Of a conflict between parties, having developed to a stage where the conflict may be reviewed by a court of law.

* {{quote-book|year=2004|author=Kenneth F. Warren|title=Administrative Law in the Political System|isbn=0813341167 citation

passage=Problems emerge in judging whether a case is ripe , however, when contested general agency directives are issued that are not aimed at specific parties.}}

Smelly: having a disagreeable odor.

* {{quote-book|year=2004|author=Colum McCann|title=Fishing the Sloe-Black River|isbn=0312423381 citation

|passage=Dolores, giving her a bath yesterday, said she was a bit ripe under the armpits.}}